Monday, June 28, 2010

Painting A Dog A Day, Cats Always Welcome!

It has been a while since I have showcased an Artist in my Monday blog and today it is my honor to showcase Lake Orion artist Kimberly  Kelly Santini. It is a rare person indeed who evokes such enthusiasm, passion, vibrance, excitement and good 'ol personality plus, in just 140 characters or less, on Twitter! That is what I felt when my path crossed with Kims' a few weeks back. The fact that she is a native of Oakland County, Michigan doesn't hurt either. What sealed the deal of wanting to write about her? Just view some of her work and see for yourself, you will be smitten too.

"Kimberly Kelly Santini has no problem keeping herself busy. She is the creator of "Painting A Dog A Day" (now in year four, portraits of cats are welcome too!!), "a self-designed project that involves the completion of one new pet portrait each day. Her daily paintings are a renowned addition to many events: she's designed the American Kennel Club National Championships poster in 2007, graced wine bottles with a custom design, led elementary students in exploring their own creative voices through collaged pet portraiture, and won coveted awards at juried events."

"Santini is looking forward to creating her 1000th daily painting later this summer while simultaneously hanging an invitational solo exhibition at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah."

"An animal advocate, Santini donates a percentage of her studio's profits to the Oakland Pet Adoption Center, in Oakland County, Michigan."

I told you Kim has no problem keeping herself busy right? In addition to all of the above "she also teaches creative journaling, mentors emerging artists, is the Director of the Canine Art Guild, is a contributing Editor to Art Career Experts and other online art sites, is writing her third book and volunteers in the local communities of Michigan"

To Contact Kimberly Kelly Santini visit http://www.turtledovedesigns.com/ or http://www.paintingadogaday.com/

If you know of an artist you would like to see featured in my blog (who also paints cats) and donates a portion of their earnings to charities that support cats (and dogs) please leave a comment on this blog, or contact Caren Gittleman on Twitter at  http://twitter.com/catchatcaren or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/carenosringittleman







15 comments:

  1. She's really amazing! The cats look full of life and personalities. What a great talent she has! I love those paintings, they are wonderful.

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  2. Gorgeous!

    -Anastasia

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  3. Not to mention a dedicated MOM! Kim is inspiring!
    friend and fellow artist,

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  4. Thanks to all three of you who read and commented!
    Yes Kim is an amazing artist, I just love her work!
    Patricia thanks for adding the "dedicated MOM!"
    Thanks all for stopping by and reading!

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  5. Caren
    Love this paintings; she doesn't beautiful work. Very authentic and realistic. Make you want to pet them!

    Great post.

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  6. Yes Dawn her work is just beautiful! If I am ever working again I will buy one!

    Thank you for your kind words about the post as well!

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  7. In my dreams, I wish I could paint like that! Absolutely beautiful. Kitties aren't easy to paint either!

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  8. Wow! What beautiful paintings - they really are inspiring :)

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  9. Callie thanks I am sure she loves reading these comments! I love what Dawn said above that it makes you want to "pet them".....cats are so difficult to draw and paint, these are simply gorgeous and she is so modest!

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  10. Awesome pictures! Extremely creative! I also love that you donate a percentage to your local adoption center. I look forward to seeing your 1,000 painting: http://www.cat-toure.com

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  11. Those paintings are awesome. I've always wanted to commission an artist to paint my cats. But I keep waiting for an artist to realize how beautiful my cats are and BEG me to let her paint them. In retrospect, this *might* not be the most practical plan. Although an artist is more likely to contact me to paint my cats than she'd be to paint me. So that's something. Right? Hmm.

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  12. thanks to you both!!

    @alonewithcats I hope the artist contacts you to paint YOU and your cats!

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  13. Oh my, these are gorgeous! It's always hard to tell whether an artist really captures an animal's spirit unless it's your own, but it sure looks like Kimberly does.

    Caren, are you familiar with Bernadette Kazmarski? Her cat paintings are wonderful. Here's the link to her blog, which has links to all her other sites: http://portraitsofanimals.wordpress.com/

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  14. Ingrid thanks so much for stopping by and for providing the link to Bernadette, I am going to check it out right now!

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  15. Ingrid, Bernadette's work is just beautiful!!!!! So much to see! I am going to have to keep visiting to digest it all. I just subscribed to her blog to keep abreast of all of her activities and I posted a comment telling her that you sent me to her.
    Thanks!

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